THE ADVENT HARBINGER’S “REMARKS” ON OUR “REPLY.”

(See Herald page 195.)

            We have delayed publishing this reply, hoping to find time to give that attention to it which the magnitude of the questions under investigation demands; but in this we have been disappointed, and as our time will be all taken up in making necessary preparations for our eastern tour, and as we desire to have our readers see the article, all we can do now is to give it to them with the following brief remarks:

1.      We very highly prize the spirit of christian kindness manifested in this ‘reply.’ It is a rare grace among religious disputants in these degenerate times: may it more and more abound in us and our worthy friend of the Herald, so that we may be enabled to ‘keep the unity of the Spirit,’ though on some minor points we may differ in sentiment.

2.      We profess to be ‘grounded and settled’ in the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity, for they are plainly taught in the inspired Word; we therefore expect to make no essential changes in reference to them. But relative to unfulfilled prophecy, we freely confess that we are a learner, and as a matter of course are not perfect in knowledge in this respect—and should be willing to be taught more perfectly by any one; and we are happy to be assured that the editor of the Herald possesses this teachable disposition; and we would that we could say the same of the editors of other Heralds. Were they willing to learn of Christ, they would become wiser and much better qualified to teach others than they now are.

3.      Bro. Thomas is mistaken in saying that we hold that the ‘Twelve Tribes will be restored to the land promised to their fathers . . . immediately subsequent to the battle of Armageddon,’ for we have supposed they would be gathered previous to that battle. We have viewed the order of events thus, 1. The personal advent of Christ and the resurrection of the saints, &c. 2. The gathering of Israel to their Messiah at Jerusalem, (whom they would not know at first, any more than Joseph’s brethren at first knew him.) 3. The kings of the earth, or Gog and his confederates, make war with the Lamb, or the battle of Armageddon is fought, on the mountains of Israel, and the Lord and his people are victorious. 4. Christ, or the anti-typical Joseph, then reveals himself to his brethren according to the flesh, and they mourn, &c.

4.      Bro. Thomas agrees with us that the general gathering of Israel, &c., will not be perfected until after the advent, but thinks it will be sufficiently commenced previous to that event, to have a colony of Israelites in Jerusalem and Palestine when the Lord shall come; ‘two-thirds’ of which (the people in the country) will be cut off—and the city will be taken, &c., by the invading army of Russia, and at this time of sore trouble of the Jewish colony, the Lord will come to their deliverance, and to the destruction of the army of Gog. At this crisis Gentile times will terminate, and the ‘times of restitution’ begin.

We will, when we shall have time to do so, compare these views more thoroughly if possible, than we hitherto have done, with the sure word of prophecy, and endeavour to follow its light wherever it may lead us, for every other way is dark, and ends in disappointment. We would not be too sanguine on these great matters, which are yet in the future. We may be mistaken, and Bro. Thomas in the right, on certain points, and vice versa; or both may be incorrect in some respects, and the truth may lie between us. The order of events may stand thus:

1.      The advent of Christ into the atmospheric heavens.

2.      The resurrection of the righteous, who with the living saints, will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

3.      The gathering of Israel to their own land, &c.

4.      The indignation of the Lord, or vials of wrath on his enemies, while his saints are secure with the Lord in their ‘chambers.’

5.      The gathering of the army of Gog on the mountains of Israel, by which Jerusalem will be taken, sacked, &c., two-thirds of the inhabitants of the land be cut off, as predicted in Zechariah 13 & 14.

6.      At this time of trouble of Israel, the Lord with all his saints, (who were caught up to meet him in the air, at his first manifestation) will descend to Mount Olivet, destroy the hosts of Gog and deliver Israel, who will then acknowledge him to be their Messiah, and mourn on account of their sins, &c.

Let us candidly compare these different views with the revealed word, with a child like disposition, willing to receive the truth, however much it may cross our most dearly cherished opinions, and the true light on these important matters will so shine upon the eye of our understanding as to enable us, beyond all doubt, to decide which is the right way.’

COMMENTS.

            It will be seen from the above that our friend of the A. H. does not expect the battle of Armageddon to be fought at the appearing of the Lord of Hosts; but subsequently to that event, and ‘the gathering of Israel to their Messiah at Jerusalem.’ His difficulty in the case, I think, may be referred to his regarding the phrase ‘the battle of Armageddon’ as a single fight, instead of a series of bloody campaigns. The apocalyptic words are eis ton polemon tees heemeras ekeinees tees megalees ton Theou tou pantokratoros, that is, ‘unto the war of that great day of the almighty God’—Revelation 16: 14, 10. The kings of the Roman territory are gathered by the agency of the Frog like spirits, not to a machee or pitched battle, but to a polemos or war; and this war is styled ‘the war of Armageddon,’ because the symbolic angel of the sixth vial through the Frog-Spirits ‘gathers them into the place (or country) called Hebraistically Armageddon.’ The Armageddon war begins with the striking of Nebuchadnezzar’s image on the clayey feet at the appearing of Christ; it continues during the comminuting of its fragments to dust; and ends with the utter destruction of the Powers which now rule the goat-nations of the earth. A war precedes the Armageddon war which is being prepared for the world by the ambition of Napoleon. This Napoleon war will ultimate in the gathering of all the goat-nations’ armies against Jerusalem under the Russo-Assyrian Gog, who will take possession of the city, as predicted by Zechariah—Zechariah 14: 1-2. Thus the crisis is formed which necessitates the coming of Michael, or Jesus, to deliver Daniel’s countrymen and their city, which deliverance of the city begins the Armageddon war, which is Christ’s and his Saints’ war against Israel’s foes. During this war the work of Israel’s restoration under Elijah as Christ’s forerunner to the Ten Tribes, progresses to its consummation—a work which will have been accomplished when peace is granted to the world.

            The sacking of Jerusalem after the Lord’s appearing in the air, the fifth thing in the order of our friend’s theory, cannot by any means be admitted. The enemy will be in the possession of the city when the Lord appears. He comes to drive him out. But to permit him to sack the city in his very presence, would be to inflict a discomfiture on Israel’s king, which would fill the hearts of his followers with dismay.

            In reasoning upon all these events it must not be forgotten, that Jesus is to be ‘a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to both the Houses of Israel’—Isaiah 8: 14. This has been fulfilled in relation to the House of Judah; but as yet he has never been so to the Ten Tribes. Scope must therefore be afforded for this work; so that any theory that leaves it unprovided for must be defective in some important element of interpretation.

EDITOR.

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